Photographs by KEVIN SWANK / Courier & Press
After a couple of $500 pledges, TV personality Ron Rhodes, left, and Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams dance on camera, much to the delight of some members of the USI Women's Soccer Team in the background during the Tri-State Gives Back telethon Friday at the Evansville Red Cross.

Kevin Swank, The Evansville Courier & Press

EVANSVILLE - Friday's 13-hour Tri-State Gives Back telethon — sponsored by local media companies, including The Courier and Press — at the local Red Cross headquarters raised a total of $50,000 from Tri-State residents for ongoing superstorm Sandy relief efforts on the East Coast.

Greg Waite, a spokesman for the Evansville-Wabash Valley chapter Red Cross, said the event was put together in response to the large number of area residents who have contacted the organization asking how they can help.

"We continue to see the pictures and everything that has been coming from the East. We know they need our help. For us, it was we need to come up with something to be able to help."

Eyewitness News and South Central Media's WIKY-104.1 FM were both were broadcasting live from the Red Cross headquarters Friday morning — often reading the names of donors on air. In addition to the morning broadcast, the telethon was on-air at noon and from 4 p.m. until it ended at 6 p.m.

The drive also featured several local figures manning the phone lines taking donations as well.

During one morning shift Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams and Norm Bafunno, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Indiana, as well as members of the University of Southern Indiana women's soccer team were all taking calls at the same time.

Williams even showed off Gangnam Style dance moves on-air with Eyewitness News meteorologist Ron Rhodes in response to two $500 donations from viewers. Williams admitted he quickly watched a video of the popular dance that goes with a current hit song by the same name before trying to duplicate the effort. While the display probably weren't the most graceful ever seen, Williams said he had no problem doing it for a good cause

"It was the riding-the horse-move was what I called it, Williams said. "You're saddled up and you do the lasso thing. It's not all that tough, but it doesn't look good when people like me do it."

Old National Bank announced it would match donations up to $5,000 at the start of the event — a total that was quickly surpassed when the phone lines opened at 5 a.m. The bank has also set up an account to benefit the Red Cross for people who want to donate to the relief efforts at any branch location. Donations can also be made the Red Cross website or in person at the chapter's headquarters on Stockwell Road. A $10 donation can also be made from a mobile phone by texting "REDCROSS" to 90999.

Bafunno also said his company would match up to $1,000 of donations during a 30-minute period Friday morning. Parent company Toyota announced a $1 million donation to Sandy relief efforts earlier this month.

A member of the Red Cross board of directors Bafunno said he took a phone call from an Owensboro, Ky., woman who dialed the Red Cross by mistake but ended up making a $25 donation anyway.

Waite said 27 people from the local chapter are now among the Red Cross' 5,700 volunteers from around the country helping out on the East Coast.

"People here can say, 'I gave $25, and it's going to support our local people doing what they want to do,'" Waite said. "And that's helping people."